An electronic circuit is produced by mounting a circuit component such as an electronic component, on a circuit substrate such as a printed wiring board, and soldering the circuit component to the circuit substrate. A substrate-related-operation performing system performs at least a portion of the electronic-circuit producing process. A substrate-related operation performed by the substrate-related-operation performing system is, e.g., a solder-cream printing operation, a component mounting operation, or an adhesive applying operation. Thus, the substrate-related-operation performing system may employ various sorts of substrate-related-operation performing apparatuses that perform the above-indicated various sorts of operations. More specifically described, the substrate-related-operation performing system may employ a solder printing apparatus that applies, in advance, solder cream to portions of a circuit substrate where electronic components are to be mounted; a highly viscous fluid applying apparatus that applies an adhesive to fix electronic components to a circuit substrate, or the above-indicated solder cream; a component mounting apparatus that mounts electronic components at predetermined positions on a circuit substrate; or a re-flowing furnace that thermally treats solder cream provided between a circuit substrate and electronic components and thereby finishes soldering the components to the substrate. Generally, a desirable substrate-related-operation performing system is constituted by selecting, from the above-indicated various sorts of substrate-related-operation performing apparatuses, one or more necessary sorts and numbers of substrate-related-operation performing apparatuses, and combining the selected apparatuses such that the combined apparatuses are arranged along a line. For example, a substrate-related-operation performing system is constituted by a solder printing apparatus located in an upstream portion of the system, a plurality of component mounting apparatuses located on a downstream side of the solder printing apparatus, and a re-flowing furnace located on a downstream side of the component mounting apparatuses. In addition, a highly viscous fluid applying apparatus may be provided between the solder printing apparatus and the component mounting apparatuses.
Many substrate-related-operation performing apparatuses perform respective substrate-related operations according to respective operation performing programs. In those operation performing apparatuses, therefore, if a current sort of circuit substrates each as an operation object is changed to another sort of circuit substrates, then a current operation performing program needs to be replaced with another operation performing program. For example, a component mounting apparatus is such an operation performing apparatus that repeats a step of mounting a predetermined sort of electronic component at a predetermined position on a circuit substrate, and an operation performing program implemented by the component mounting apparatus describes contents of an operation to be performed, e.g., sorts of electronic components to be mounted on a circuit substrate, component-supply positions where those components are to be supplied, and component-mount positions where those components are to be mounted, and an order of mounting of those components. Likewise, an operation performing program implemented by a solder printing apparatus or a highly viscous fluid applying apparatus each as a substrate-related-operation performing apparatus other than the component mounting apparatus describes contents of an operation corresponding to a circuit substrate as an operation object. Since contents of an operation performed by a substrate-related-operation performing apparatus correspond to a sort of circuit substrates, the current operation performing program implemented by the substrate-related-operation performing apparatus needs to be replaced with a new operation performing program, when the current sort of circuit substrates as the operation objects are changed to a new sort of circuit substrates.
A single substrate-related-operation performing system can be operated for a plurality of sorts of circuit substrates each as an operation object. Generally, when a current sort of circuit substrates as operation objects are changed to another sort of circuit substrates, each substrate-related-operation performing apparatus is subjected to a re-setting procedure including replacing the current operation performing program with another operation performing program. Since the re-setting procedure includes various sorts of complicated operations, it is required, from the viewpoint of production efficiency, that those complicated operations be carried out reliably and quickly. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-308596 proposes, as a technique of carrying out efficiently the re-setting of substrate-related-operation performing system, to indicate guidelines to an operator who carries out the re-setting procedure.